| 1. |
A balance
of power requires a balance of knowledge.
|
| 2. |
A "queer" is anyone sufficiently ostracized in youth that s/he can't ostracize anyone else.
|
| 3. |
Art
is a form of knowledge, differing from others in that its strategies
include the non-literal.
|
| 4. |
Art
is an artist's favorite life-and-death matter.
|
| 5. |
Artists
are the means by which works cross-pollinate.
|
| 6. |
At
some point, it's best to quit trying to get rid of stuff, or trying
to get more stuff, and start figuring out how to use what you've got.
|
| 7. |
The basic truths of life aren't easy to understand, but many wait for us in libraries and museums. The hard part is figuring out how to apply them.
|
| 8. |
Beauty is pain transformed into useful information.
|
| 9. |
The best in us keeps trying to come out. And since power corrupts, the best usually comes from the unpowerful.
|
| 10. |
"Blasphemy" is "bad" art (i.e., among other things, the concept of labelling anything "blasphemous" might be called a pernicious fiction.)
|
| 11. |
Boundaries/distinctions are artificial, yet useful/fun; until they aren't.
|
| 12. |
Comparison is violence.
|
| 13. |
Conflict
creates consciousness.
|
| 14. |
Dandies connect us to a higher universe because they love beauty over perfection.
|
| 15. |
Destruction
is easy; creation is hard.
|
| 16. |
The "ends" DO justify the means -- but only if ALL the results are taken into account, not just the one we think we want. (In most cases, those proposing questionable means fail to take into account all of the long- as well as short-term consequences of their methods.)
|
| 17. |
Every
obstacle is a path.
|
| 18. |
Everything's
kitsch to somebody.
|
| 19. |
Express
every loving impulse.
|
| 20. |
Few
of us know which of our acts and omissions will prove to have been
our greatest successes or failures.
|
| 21. |
The
goal is to communicate as much useful information as possible to as many people as possible.
|
| 22. |
Helping
is usually more powerful (because more efficient) than harming.
|
| 23. |
I
am the pinhead atop the pyramid of others whose help has made possible
whatever I achieve and upon whom I blame all my failures.
|
| 24. |
If you were as smart as you think you are, you'd be trying to learn from the rest of us.
|
| 25. |
I’m
not the center of the universe, just one of countless belly-buttons (a scar
showing that nourishment must now be found elsewhere).
|
| 26. |
I believe we can make the world better, and I'm pretty sure we’ve got
nothing better to do.
|
| 27. |
Identity is your DNA's marketing brand.
Corollary: identity facilitates evolution.
|
| 28. |
I
hope my god is better than the one I am to my cat.
|
| 29. |
If God*
were the perfect creator, he’d let us create ourselves, and
then be our perfect observer.
|
| 30. |
If there were evidence that doing harm resulted in more good, I'd consider it. But I've haven't yet seen it.
|
| 31. |
If
you liked it even a little, clap a lot.
|
| 32. |
Information is the new wealth, and the infowar is the new class war.
|
| 33. |
It
is foolish to trust much when there's much to lose,
 or not to when there's little.
|
| 34. |
It's not easy to become anything; and it's advisable only up to a point.
|
| 35. |
It
takes love to accept love; 'cause it's rarely offered in the exact form
we thought we wanted (which is why it matters).
|
| 36. |
Just trying and failing to make sure my own thoughts are authentic is a full-time job.
|
| 37. |
Life is tragic (physical life is doomed to disappoint, because of entropy), and is redeemed by beauty.
|
| 38. |
Meaning
resides in relatedness.
|
| 39. |
Money may or may not equal speech; but information is the new wealth, and the
infowar is the new class war. It's not a war against or for any particular nation; it's a struggle between old and new power structures as to who will control information.
|
| 40. |
The
more chaotic the system, the more data it takes to describe it.
Corollary: a complete description of total chaos would constitute
total order.
|
| 41. |
The
more resources expended to villify the messenger, the more sure we can be of the importance of the message.
|
| 42. |
Most temptations could be less sweet, and still lure me to my doom.
|
| 43. |
Most
walls are made by humans, and have holes.
|
| 44. |
Never
re-do your website when you're drunk.
|
| 45. |
Never
waste a good DJ.
|
| 46. |
Never re-think decisions made when you were smarter.
Always re-think made decisions when you're smarter.
|
| 47. |
Nothing definitely is or isn't anything. (One of several meanings of the foregoing: that there isn't anything that definitely either is or isn't any one thing.)
|
| 48. |
None of us ever get all the love we deserve. It has something to do with how we spread oursevles thinner, in order to perceive more of ourselves.
|
| 49. |
One
cannot see oneself without a mirror.
|
| 50. |
One job of artists to lure the rich into spending
their wealth with reason to feel good about it.
|
| 51. |
One's self is one's least malleable material, except for one's significant other.
|
| 52. |
Only
God can make a tabula rasa.
|
| 53. |
The
only thing more fun than detecting a conspiracy is engaging in one.
|
| 54. |
Only
when all of us are heard, can the whole truth be known.
|
| 55. |
Our
creations give life to us, as much as we give life to them.
|
| 56. |
Our differences are essential to our evolution.
|
| 57. |
Our identities
are defined by our deficiencies. If we were perfect, all but one of
us would be redundant.
|
| 58. |
Power demands to be used.
|
| 59. |
Power demands to be trusted. Don't.
|
| 60. |
Re- the second coming: maybe it'll happen when we realize the "messiah" is us.
|
| 61. |
Security is produced not through fear, but love.
|
| 62. |
Sooner
or later, everyone has their a** kicked. If you’re not trying hard to face reality, you’ll have your a** kicked harder.
|
| 63. |
Somebody has to make it happen.
|
| 64. |
The
task of the finite is to point toward the infinite.
|
| 65. |
There
can be no responsibility, without freedom;
no
freedom, without power;
no
power, without knowledge;
no
knowledge, without love.
|
| 66. |
There's
always something left. (Everything is asymptotic/fractile.)
|
| 67. |
There's no agony worse than feeling you haven't done what you should have and you've run out of time to do it.
|
| 68. |
Topiaries
and dry ice -- you can never have too much of either.
|
| 69. |
Trying is usually more helpful than not trying.
|
| 70. |
Trying
to communicate truth is, ultimately, more challenging and fun than the alternatives.
|
| 71. |
War
is much harder than peace, but much easier to make.
|
| 72. |
We all want to give all of ourselves to someone, anyone, who can receive it/us; but none less than all of us can.
|
| 73. |
We’re
all debts that will be paid.
|
| 74. |
We are
planets, and what we bury deepest becomes our core on which all else
is founded.
|
| 75. |
We cannot not create; we can only choose between creating badly and
creating well.
|
| 76. |
We help
ourselves in mysterious ways.
|
| 77. |
We learn our limits by exceeding them. (There's a risk/reward ratio here.)
|
| 78. |
We need
not just grist for the mill, but time and space to mill the grist.
|
| 79. |
We are our best art works; don't despair if critics don't get it, because one or more other artists will.
|
| 80. |
What most
people want in a significant other is a generous boss.
|
| 81. |
What you
kill will own you.
|
| 82. |
Whether
to lose your virginity is not the issue. There are infinite kinds
of virginity, and we lose several every day. What matters is, does it get better.
|
| 83. |
Women do want to change men -- into what they pretended to be while
courting us.
|
| 84. |
The
world is a computer, and art works are software for it.
|
| 85. |
Your
adversary can prevail over you simply by causing you to waste your
time.
|
| |
|
